Steering Committee

Jon Andrew, chief
of the Service’s National Wildlife Refuge System in the Southeast,
will chair the Steering Committee. He has worked on national wildlife
refuges throughout the country. He has also served as the Chief of
the Division of Migratory Bird Management in Arlington, Virginia.

Dr. Ken Rosenberg, director
of conservation science at Cornell University’s Lab of Ornithology,
co-chair the Biology Working Group. He has spent many years
studying foraging specialization in Amazonian rain forest species.
A widely known North American birder, Rosenberg serves as co-captain
of the Lab's World Series of Birding team, the Sapsuckers.

Kenny Ribbeck, forestry
programs manager for the Louisiana Department of Wildlife and Fisheries
will co-lead the Habitat Management and Conservation Working Group.
He serves on a number of professional organizations including the
Society of American Foresters, The Wildlife Society, Louisiana Forestry
Association, and the Louisiana Wildlife Biologists Association. Ribbeck
is also forestry programs manager for the Louisiana Department of
Wildlife and Fisheries.

Dr. Tom Foti, chief
of research with the Arkansas Natural Heritage Commission, will co-chair
the Habitat Management and Conservation Working Group. Foti supervises
the Commission’s research staff and develops and implements
inventory and monitoring programs. He belongs to a number of professional
organizations including American Association for the Advancement
of Science, Ecological Society of America, Natural Areas Association,
Arkansas Academy of Science, Southeastern Association of Biologists,
Southwestern Association of Naturalists, and Society of Wetland Scientists.

David Goad, deputy
director of the Arkansas Game and Fish Commission, will share leadership
of the Corridor of Hope Conservation working group. Goad has been
employed for the past 17 years with the Arkansas Game and Fish Commission.
He has worked as a wildlife management area biologist, regional project
coordinator, black bear program leader, as assistant chief for the
wildlife management division, and since February 2003, as deputy
director.

Dr. Robert Cooper, Professor at the University of Georgia's Warnell
School of Forest Resources, will co-chair the Biology Working Group.
Cooper's research interests include ornithology, quantitative ecology,
avian conservation biology and ecosystem management. He was a contributor
to the prototype Partners in Flight bird conservation plan for the
Lower Mississippi Alluvial Valley. Current research projects involve
assessing the effects of land management alternatives on birds, bird-insect
interactions, and using birds as environmental indicators.

Fast Facts --

In the early 1900s, conservationists
warned of the impending extinction of
the Ivory-billed woodpecker.

From 1937 to 1939, James Tanner, a
young doctoral student at Cornell
University, researched the Ivory-billed
woodpeckers of the Singer Tract.

Prior to the 2004 discovery
of the Ivory-billed Woodpecker at Cache
River National Wildlife Refuge in
Arkansas, this was the last
authenticated sighting of the bird in the
United States.

Much of the information
comes from “Hope Is The
Thing With Feathers: A Personal Chronicle of
Vanished Birds” by Christopher
Cokinos.